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Arthur Kirkland
Personality Arthur is a blunt, sharp-tongued teenager, who is easily turned to anger and prone to somewhat rough speech. His temper relies quite heavily on his mood at the time and how well he knows the person who might be teasing or bothering him, as he will tolerate far more from friends than he will from strangers and even less from somebody that he actively dislikes. He finds conversation difficult, not for any lack of trying but rather because he often finds it hard to make himself understood, lacking a certain tact that many other people are blessed with. When he is annoyed he will usually make a situation worse by arguing long after he really needs to, and since he doesn't like to apologise such things are usually left until the other side gives in. He is incredibly stubborn, and it takes a lot for him to give in once he has decided that he thinks of something in a certain way. He becomes flustered under close scrutiny and if paid compliments, but hates blushing and will often become moody if such a thing happens. However under the right circumstances he can be incredibly sweet, kind and caring, and is capable of being very charming when he wants to be. Arthur can also be rather manipulative, and has no qualms about lying to keep himself out of trouble, or to put others into it. Since blood purity has never been an issue for his family, he finds the people who focus on it to be rather strange and would much rather avoid talking about it altogether than attempt to get into any kind of debate on the topic. On any other subject, however, he will defend his own opinions fiercely unless given enough reason to change them, and anyone able to do that will most certainly fain his respect. Arthur doesn’t make friends easily, owing to a rather sheltered upbringing, and will more often than not initially shy away from people talking to him as he wonders suspiciously what they might want from him. Once he has it set in his mind that all a person wants is to talk, however, he will quite happily do that. Ambitious and intelligent, Arthur carefully measures out his actions before he goes ahead with anything that could be potentially dangerous, and is highly attentive when there’s something that he needs to learn. He takes a somewhat cynical, realistic view of the world when speaking to others, yet despite this often turns to romanticism in private, going on flights of fancy that occasionally lead to him missing things in classes that he doesn’t really like (such as History of Magic, which he finds horrendously boring). He has never been a particularly sport-oriented person and will actively keep himself away from anything that involves strenuous physical activity, unless it is also linked with something else that he’s actually interested in (for instance he would have no issues with hiking to find dragons in their natural habitat, but hiking by itself would be something he would turn his nose up at). Most of his focus in school is on the academic side of things, and he has never yet been late with a piece of homework, much to his personal pride. Background Arthur Kirkland was born in Winchester, England to a moderately well off, middle class Wizarding family. The youngest of four brothers, his father was often away due to his work, while his mother stayed at home to keep an eye on her unruly brood. Taking after their father, his brothers were red-haired and boisterous, while Arthur himself was blond and somewhat shy, leading him to quickly become his mother’s favourite as he grew up, and drawing no small amount of resentment from his siblings (who hadn’t wanted a little brother in the first place). Much of Arthur’s childhood was taken up with hiding from them, either by keeping close by his mother or finding places in the house to crawl into where they couldn’t reach him. It was only when their father came home that Arthur would be left alone as all three of them vied to impress him. Blood purity wasn’t something that was put up on a pedestal in Arthur’s household, with many half-bloods and muggle-borns coming mostly from his mother’s side of the family, but when Arthur had still shown no inclination towards magic by the age of six, it was feared that he was in fact a squib. Thus, when he accidentally blew up the family dog the Christmas after his sixth birthday and burst into his parent’s bedroom pulling the poor animal after him with a piece of string tied to its leg, it was something of a relief. His talents developed quickly from then, and he soon out-paced his brothers in terms of abilities. Never forgetting the look of disappointment on his father’s face when he had been told that his youngest son might never successfully perform magic, Arthur pushed himself to study hard and be the very best he could be. It was no surprise when, upon being accepted into Hogwarts, he was chosen by a walnut wand with a dragon heartstring core, measuring eleven and three-quarter inches and as unbending as his personality would one day be. It was his Sorting that brought him the most amount of anxiety. His mother had been a Ravenclaw, his father a Slytherin, and a tradition of both Houses ran strongly through the family, but the House that he was placed in was not a disappointment. Arthur quickly found a natural affinity with the creatures that they studied in Care of Magical Creatures, as well as an innate talent in Charms, Potions and Herbology (despite an accident involving shooting a feather up through three floors during his first attempt to cast Wingardium Leviosa) helped along further by the nature of his wand. He found that he very much enjoyed Astronomy and Ancient Runes, as well as the flying lessons that commenced in first year, however made no attempt to join the Quidditch team until his sixth year. Transfiguration never became one of his strong-points… any attempts at it have the tendency to produce things that look remarkably like teapots. His successes in school allowed him to become far more confident and ambitious, and each summer he became more and more able to defend himself from his brothers, who soon started to actively leave him alone once he suspended all three of them upside-down by their shoelaces from a tree for two hours. Although his changing behaviour drove him to become more distant from his mother, his father began to show interest in him, and has recently been talking about how Arthur might someday work for the Ministry of Magic. Arthur himself isn’t terribly keen on the idea. Family Parents Arthur's father Henry, a Hogwarts alumni from Slytherin house, is a middle-level employee of the Ministry of Magic, and while he provides for his family monetarily has always been something of a distant father. He spends a great deal of time away, and when he's home two out of the three of Arthur's elder brothers will more often than not fall over themselves in attempts to gain his attention. While Arthur's rather certain that his father loves him he's never really been shown it. It's not something that bothers him terribly - difficulty showing proper emotion is something that's in their blood. Unlike his brother Thomas, Arthur's uncle and Victoria Kirkland's father, he's highly driven to the point of being aloof and gives the impression that he puts his job before everything else. Arthur has heard him stating many times that he doesn't understand his brother's choice of vocation - working for the Muggle police. His mother Elanor is a different story. A 'typical wife and mother' figure, she supports all of her children as best she can, and keeps in close contact with her sister-in-law - Victoria's mother Christina. She has a kind heart, and is an intelligent if slightly ditzy woman with a love of brewing tea which has passed on to Arthur. While in Hogwarts, she was in Ravenclaw house, though she will often laugh and say she doesn't know how she ended up in there. Despite the qualifications that she left school with she is happy being a homemaker and mother to her four sons, who she still fusses over as if they're only boys despite three of them now being grown men. She's well aware of how much William and Phineas pick on Arthur (while he believes she doesn't), but doesn't step in because she knows that she won't be able to hold Arthur's hand forever, and now would be a bad time to start. Brothers The youngest of four, Arthur has spent most of his life being sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly, terrorised by the younger two of his three elder brothers. William and Phineas, aged 18 and 20 respectively, have made it their life's work to make his as much of a hell as they can without raising the ire of their parents. Anyone who has known Arthur since he started school will be aware of it, and Arthur himself has long since resigned himself to the fact that this is just how things are. Thankfully, as time has gone on and he has slowly gained a small number of close friends, they have left him alone and as he moved into sixth year, William graduated, leaving him free of the both of them for the last two years of his time in school. Both were in Slytherin, and are as relentless in their ambition as their father, but unlike him they will not hesitate to think about the consequences that their actions might have. They are capable of being caring, and have in the past defended their little brother from people attempting to pick on him.. but they would later say it was only because they were the only ones who were allowed to do it. David, Arthur's eldest brother, is 21 years old and pays little attention to the antics of his younger siblings. A quiet, clever young man and graduate from Ravenclaw, he was as boisterous as William and Phineas in his youth but evened out as he grew older, becoming much more like their mother. While he certainly doesn't lack their father's drive, it's far more moderated, and although he refuses to step in between the bullying, he will always offer Arthur a hug and a friendly ear in the aftermath. He is easily the most powerful wizard in the immediate family, and won't allow himself to be drawn to either side as he knows how quickly revenge can get out of hand. Relationships Alfred F. Jones Alfred Jones has been the bane of Arthur's school life since the first time they came across one another in first year. A walking epitome of everything that he hates about Gryffindors, Alfred spent the first three years of school bullying him in the usual way - name calling and pushing him around. It was only when Arthur walked into Herbology one day in the second semester of fourth year with a black eye caused by one of his older brothers that Alfred finally showed some genuine concern for the boy he had spent the last three years picking on. He was, of course, violently rebuffed, but from that day on he ceased bullying Arthur physically and stuck to verbal taunting, and even that slowly died off over the next eighteen months. Arthur would have rather had the teasing than feeling that Alfred was sorry for him, and he worked on putting distance between himself and the other, a plan which was constantly derailed by Alfred popping up everywhere and occasionally contacting him on his journal. Now going into their sixth year, they still bicker constantly, but there is an underlying hint of something else - they care about one another. Through the constant arguments and fighting they have somehow managed to forge a kind of strange affection, both becoming upset or out of sorts if the other ignores them for too long. At summer camp, Alfred finally admitted that he liked Arthur as more than a friend, but Arthur didn't believe him. He still doesn't know what to think. Bruce Banner Arthur and Bruce are very good friends, to the point they can play gay chicken and not feel the slightest bit uncomfortable (or so they would claim). The Slytherin boy teases Bruce often mercilessly about how much he flirts despite saying that he doesn't know how, but he means it all in the best of humour and doesn't take it too far. Bruce is probably one of few people that Arthur would implicitly trust. Greg Lestrade Arthur met Greg in his third year, when the second-year Hufflepuff accidentally set his eyebrows on fire with a misdirected charm. He'd seen the boy in the library before that, always bent over one book or another, but it was only after Greg approached him in the hospital wing to apologise that the two became unlikely friends. Their respective strengths and weaknesses in their school work allow them to help one another where it's needed, and although Arthur was initially suspicious of the other boy - as anyone would be suspicious of someone who had set fire to their face - he slowly warmed to him and they remain good friends years later. Shinra Kishitani When Shinra Kishitani walked into the cabin that Arthur was sitting in alone on his way to Hogwarts at the beginning of his third year, the thirteen year old didn't know quite what to think. Of course, he was rather too occupied with attempting to catch an escaped chocolate frog to think much of anything at all, and when he finally grabbed the thing, the first-year had firmly situated himself. He ignored the boy for a while, not really knowing what he could say to him (and not knowing that Shinra was thinking much the same thing), and it was only with a silent offer of the sweets he was eating that conversation began. Arthur quickly found himself nearly overwhelmed with questions, but it passed the time, until his elder brothers came knocking on the door of the cabin. He was both shocked and touched when Shinra abruptly stood up to them, and even more so when they left laughing. He didn't realise then that he would have a friend for life in the younger boy, and initially found the fact that Shinra kept popping up everywhere to be incredibly annoying. Eventually, though, he became used to it and grew to expect it, even missing it when it didn't happen. The way that the boy would constantly take all of his verbal abuse began to make him wonder why he did it at all and provoked a slow alteration in his attitude, making it easier for him to make friends as he moved into the upper years of school. Shinra is often the one who will return his belongings when he loses them and help him find his cat when she hides from him at the end of the year. The only thing he will refuse to indulge him on is any kind of discussion about his wand's teapot fixation. Victoria Kirkland Arthur's cousin on his mother's side and definitely his favourite relative, he and Victoria have been joined at the hip since they were children, when Victoria would often spend days at his house being watched by his mother. She had no interest in his brothers, and devoted all of her attention to Arthur, even standing up to William and Phineas when they bullied him. He cares very deeply for her and would quickly step in to defend her honour with the chivalry of a Gryffindor should she get herself into any kind of trouble. She has been calling him 'Bunny' since they were small, something that began when she realised he looked like one of her rabbits when he scowled, and he in turn calls her 'Charlie' for the simple reason that she used to remind him of a King Charlies Spaniel with the way she wore her hair. They are incredibly close, to the point of being able to be physically affectionate without it feeling weird to them, though it undoubtedly looks weird to everyone else. He looks to her as the sister he never had, and a much better sibling to have than his brothers. Although they were placed in different houses in school it didn't have any effect on how close they are and they will often meet up between classes and spend time together. Victoria always knows when Arthur is upset, no matter how he tries to hide it, and is as fiercely defensive of him as he is of her (something he abides with quiet grumbling while secretly appreciating it). Loki Laufeyson A first year who contacted Arthur in the summer before his sixth year began, Loki made a good impression on Arthur with his intelligence to the point that he didn't really mind that much that he was speaking to a child when the boy's age was finally revealed. Arthur knows Loki's brother Thor, who he isn't terribly fond of for many reasons other than his being a Gryffindor, but he doesn't hold it against the youngster and will likely be a little protective of him when the summer is over. Gamzee Makara How Arthur and Gamzee ever became friends is anyone's guess, and how Arthur continues to tolerate the good-humoured stoner is another, but they are and he does and he often finds himself genuinely concerned about him. Gamzee's easygoing nature often rubs off on Arthur and tends to end in him doing things he wouldn't usually do, and then wonders about later. Bro Strider Info. Dirk Strider Info. Trivia * Arthur often reacts badly to being snuck up on, and anyone who lays a hand on him from behind without his knowing that they're there will invariably end up with a pointy elbow in their stomach. * He will usually be kinder towards girls than other boys. * Despite how much he will protest that he does not, he does have a thing for Alfred. * Currently played by Fiona. External Links Character Journal